


Rain

by snugglebumps



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 11:30:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5867605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snugglebumps/pseuds/snugglebumps





	Rain

The sky is a cold, unforgiving gray.

Rain falls from it like frozen tears, battering the spindly trees and grass. Thunder and lightning step on each other’s heels, sudden bolts of electricity across the clouds.

Temari’s day is not going well.

She walks briskly down the sodden sidewalk, freezing hands tucked into a stupidly thin jacket, umbrella tucked precariously between her elbow and side. The puddles she steps in splash on her feet rhythmically, joining the cacophony of sounds in the air.

A heavy baritone from colliding clouds hums in her ear.

Wincing, Temari looks down at the embarrassing mud stain clinging to her legs and jacket. Her mind flashes back to not even twenty minutes ago, when she had only just stepped out of the house. The flimsy high heel she was wearing had given, and she had found herself knee-deep in a, albeit clichéd, mud puddle. It had been too late to go back and change.

A fat tabby, soaked to the bone, runs across her path, splashing more mud on her knees.

“Stupid animal,” she mutters angrily. Then she remembers her own cat, Kanky, and how he hadn’t shown up that morning for his tuna. Or last night, for that matter.

“He probably ran away,” Temari mumbles. “I was neglecting him these last few days, anyway.”

It had been a rough week. Along with her weekly Reader’s Digest (which she never read anyway, it was simply for show), the mail had brought the unpleasant news that the law firm she worked at was being separated into smaller companies, and they were only taking select employees. Unfortunately, Temari wasn’t one of them.

But she isn’t one to give up.

“I’ll go over there and give Boss a piece of my mind!” she had announced.

Now, thought, the fight is slowly dripping out of her, like the raindrops streaming down the glass shelter at the bus stop. She sees her reflection in the window: sopping blonde hair, empty blue eyes, turned-down mouth. Nothing like the usual fiery, kept-together woman who’s normally there.

The sound of someone walking into the shelter is amplified tenfold.

It’s a man, a little taller than her. Shiny black hair pulled in a ponytail. Hazel eyes. Unwavering gaze. Everything about him is neat and practical, from the Wellingtons on his feet to the tight, high hairstyle.

Temari hates him immediately.

“Something wrong?”

His voice is quiet but surprisingly deep. Even from those two words- those three syllables- Temari can tell that he’s a thinker; cautious, wary, thoughtful. Not impulsive.

She realizes that she’s been scowling blatantly at him.

“I- no,” she stutters. “Something wrong with _you_?”

The moment she says that, she bites her tongue. She sounds like a bratty eight-year-old.

However, the man just looks forward, hands in pockets.

“No. The name’s Shikamaru, by the way.”

Temari stutters more for another few seconds, then comes to her senses.

“I- I’m Temari,” she mumbles. He nods and continues his observation of the storm behind the glass.

There’s something about him- Shikamaru- that puts her at ease. She feels her awkwardness draining away, replaced with an intense need to talk. Just talk. To start a conversation.

“So where are you headed?” Shikamaru asks, turning to look at her.

“None of your business.” Temari says snappishly. She has no intention of telling a stranger that she’s going back to work to plead. She still needs to keep a _little_ bit of her pride.

Shikamaru looks surprised, but the corners of his lips turn up in a half-smile.

Temari feels an odd sensation in her stomach.

“Where are _you_ going?” she asks, watching him out of the corner of her eye.

“Work.”

They subside into silence, the only sounds that of the pattering of rain, interspersed with claps of thunder.

Shikamaru looks at her out of the corner of his eye.

“How’s your day been going?”

He says it casually, but Temari suddenly feels as if he can sense the feelings of self-pity emanating off of her. She lets out a sigh.

“Not too well,” she says, staring out at the heavy sheets of water flowing out of the grey clouds.

Shikamaru nods. In that one gesture, she can feel as though he knows, he understands. But how could he possibly? This is a stranger, one that she met only minutes ago. The only things they know about the other are the names.

The sound of screeching tires and voices join the symphony outside.

“Oh, that’s my bus,” Shikamaru says suddenly. He turns and looks at Temari.

“Maybe we’ll meet again someplace else,” he tells her. Temari forces her facial features into a smirk.

“Don’t count on it,” she says, as snippily as possible. Shikamaru just smiles, pulls up his hood, and strides outside.

Temari watches, heart hammering, as he boards the bus and disappears.

She looks up at the dark sky, suddenly filled with energy.

 _I’m going to give boss a piece of my mind,_ she thinks fiercely.

She feels better already.

 

 

 


End file.
